It almost embarrasses me to say it out loud, but my friends call me The Oracle. I suspect it's because I'm older than most of them. When I was young, my parents seemed to know everything! I wanted to emulate them, so learning and translating information became important. Since I have opinions on nearly everything, I share!

Tuesday, October 07, 2008

I'm too normal?

Oh sheesh. It's finally come out. Mood disorders and high creativity are linked. That freakin' figures! I know some of you will be glad to tease me about the fact that I'm not actually normal, but I don't have huge mood swings (don't be asking Max about that) and I'm not depressive nor am I bipolar. But, I'll tell you what! I read many blogs by highly creative people and my goodness, but they ARE! Sigh ... I guess I'm going to have to be the normal one in the study, eh?

There have been more than 20 studies that suggest an increased rate of bipolar and depressive illnesses in highly creative people, says Kay Redfield Jamison, professor of psychiatry at Johns Hopkins University and author of the "An Unquiet Mind," a memoir of living with bipolar disorder.

...Experts say mental illness does not necessarily cause creativity, nor does creativity necessarily contribute to mental illness, but a certain ruminating personality type may contribute to both mental health issues and art.

...They found that people with bipolar disorder scored better -- up to about 50 percent higher -- on creativity tests than the healthy control group. The creative control group had about the same increase in score relative to the healthy control group.

..."It's a little hard to argue that engaging in creative activity could create the temperament, and it may be a little bit more possible that this temperament gives you a creative advantage," he said.